Matthew Haag aka Nadshot, the owner of the popular organization 100 Thieves has recently revealed the reason behind as to why his Valorant squad benched in-game leader Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan at such a crucial stage in the season.
On September 28th, 100 Thieves revealed that steel had been moved to a backup role and Aaron ‘b0i’ Thao had been promoted to the starting lineup, confirming an earlier report by Upcomer. Because of this, many fans were taken aback by the move, considering the squad had just recently advanced to the semi-finals of the VCT Stage 3 Masters, their first LAN competition.
They were eliminated from the grand final after losing 2-0 to fellow North American team Envy in a one-sided match. With steel out of the picture, Nicholas ‘nitr0′ Cannella is anticipated to take over as the in-game leader of 100 Thieves.
When spectators asked about steel’s benching, Nadeshot responded on his stream with his insights stating; “just need something different right now.”
Here’s what he stated; “I love Josh, I think he is an incredible player. I don’t play with the players every day. I’m not in scrims. I’m not in their meetings. I’m not in any of that. If you want to hear more about it, I’m sure you will talk about it, to the point they’re comfortable. This isn’t the end of steel, this isn’t the end of his career, this isn’t the end of 100 Thieves. We’ve got to try something different. That’s all I have to say.”
Nadeshot then further discussed the issue of managing fans’ expectations, claiming that every decision will be met with rage and disappointment by a part of the organization’s supporters as he added; “As soon as we lost the event, everyone was b*tching, like, ‘Things need to be changed’. People just don’t know what they want until you give it to them. It’s tough. Fans are really hard to please.”
The North American last-chance qualification for Valorant Champions will include 100 Thieves as one of the ten teams competing. The tournament will take place in Los Angeles from October 12 – 17, with the champion earning a seat in the year-end event in Berlin.
